Halsey hates pop star label

Halsey hates being referred to as a pop star just because she has collaborated with a few pop singers in the past

Halsey hates being called a pop star.

The 'Colors' hitmaker considers herself to be an "alternative artist" and hates when people refer to her as a pop star because she has collaborated with a few pop singers in the past.

She said: "Kendrick [Lamar] has done a Maroon 5 feature, a Taylor Swift feature and a Sia feature - which is more pop features than I've done. And no one's calling him a pop star. But I'm being called one, even though I'm inherently an alternative artist.

"I don't know if it's a male thing, I don't know if it's an urban thing. I don't know what it is. But if you're a female alternative artist and you do anything that's even slightly pop leaning, it's condemning."

The 22-year-old singer - whose real name is Ashley Frangipane - uses the example of Lady Gaga, who she says has had to go to great lengths to "maintain her credibility".

Speaking on The Zach Sang Show, she added: "The lengths that Lady Gaga has to go to to maintain her credibility as an artist of the counterculture are insane. If she does anything that's even slightly too-pop people are going to be like, 'She sold out. She's a pop artist.' Kendrick Lamar can get on a Taylor Swift song and no one calls him a popstar, but Lady Gaga has to wear raw meat!"

Meanwhile, Halsey previously revealed her upcoming heartbreak album is the result of her "vomiting months of psychoanalysis" about her ex-boyfriend.

She explained: "I'm a purger. I bottle everything up and purge it all out of me. That's why I write so quickly. It's like I'm vomiting months of psychoanalysis ...

"The whole reason you make a record, is to figure stuff out about yourself. I had killed off a version of myself just so we could make our love work. Sometimes you're in a relationship for so long and you become a different person.

"You lose yourself because you change for that person. I put the seal on that relationship and fully purged myself of the feelings for that person at the same time as I finished my record."